Summer can be a fun time or a stressful time. For kids it's fun. For parents, especially parents that work and have kids it's not so much fun. With younger kids it's easy. There are a lot of different activities that the kids can go to and keep them busy and out of trouble. For kids that are over ten (10) there aren't many group activities and even though most ten year olds think they are "grown up", leaving a ten year old home alone all summer long never made me feel comfortable. A lot of people don't have the luxury of having family around to watch the kids or have the money for expensive "summer camps". So what is a parent to do?
Sit down with your kids and make a very detailed summer schedule. Plan your activities ...even things such as going to the library. Knowing exactly where your kids are will make you feel more secure.
If you have the flexibility of taking your kids to work, even for a few days over the summer, it's a great learning experience for them. And you can also get a lot of things done at your office that you never had time for, like organizing your stock room or office, putting together brochures or mailings or any variety of things.
If you can spread your vacation days out and take one day off a week you can plan mini vacations to the beach or the park for some "family time". Inexpensive and relaxing.
You can also offer to take your friends kids with you on these "outings" and they in turn can take your kids on their outings. This gives the kids fun things to look forward to and you not feeling guilty that you aren't taking them on a summer vacation or leaving them home alone bored all summer.
By making the kids responsible for coming up with ideas for their summer schedule you let them have some input into their summer and you teach them responsibility and scheduling.
Coordinating a successful summer for kids isn't easy. But by planning ahead and being organized you will be more relaxed and your kids have a lot of activities to look forward.
Have a fun and safe summer.....
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The End of the School Year
It's that time of year again. The end of the school year. An exciting time for kids but maybe not as much for parents. Along with having to re-arrange your schedule and come up with summer activities you also have to deal with all of the "stuff" that your kids bring home from school.
Projects, books, tons of papers and maybe even the tupperware that you were missing. So what are you going to do with all of that "stuff" ? Besides let it sit in the hallway for most of the summer?
Now is the time to start thinking about it. As soon as your kids come home from school (grade school, high school or even college) make them responsible for putting their things away. Go through their backpacks and throw out all of the "garbage" (you all know what I'm talking about). Take back your tupperware. Go through the clothes they bring home and donate the things that don't fit any longer or throw out the things that are beyond repair.
Keep a "few" of the special pictures that your kids made for you (take a digital picture of the rest) and toss the rest (you don't have the space to keep every single thing they made...really you don't).
If you have leftover school supplies make sure they are still good and that you will need them for the next school year. If your kids won't be able to use them give them to a parent that can or donate them.
By immediately dealing all of the things that the kids bring home from school you will not have to trip over it all summer and you can start your summer vacation with one less thing to worry about.
Have a great summer.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Projects, books, tons of papers and maybe even the tupperware that you were missing. So what are you going to do with all of that "stuff" ? Besides let it sit in the hallway for most of the summer?
Now is the time to start thinking about it. As soon as your kids come home from school (grade school, high school or even college) make them responsible for putting their things away. Go through their backpacks and throw out all of the "garbage" (you all know what I'm talking about). Take back your tupperware. Go through the clothes they bring home and donate the things that don't fit any longer or throw out the things that are beyond repair.
Keep a "few" of the special pictures that your kids made for you (take a digital picture of the rest) and toss the rest (you don't have the space to keep every single thing they made...really you don't).
If you have leftover school supplies make sure they are still good and that you will need them for the next school year. If your kids won't be able to use them give them to a parent that can or donate them.
By immediately dealing all of the things that the kids bring home from school you will not have to trip over it all summer and you can start your summer vacation with one less thing to worry about.
Have a great summer.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Monday, May 9, 2011
Protecting Your Privacy - Identity Theft
Life is very complicated these days. We are inundated with so much mail....most of it unwanted. Credit card offers arrive on a daily basis for most of us. And most people just toss them right into the garbage. A very dangerous mistake.
As organizers we tell our clients to "open the mail next to the garbage can and throw the junk mail immediately away" . This is usually to prevent it from being piled on a table creating a mess. BUT, we also need to be very careful about what we are throwing away. Anything that has identifying information, such as your name, address, social security number, birth date should be shredded.
Identity theft is rampant and can cause a lot of damage. Damage that can take years and thousands of dollars to undo. The aggravation and emotional toll that it can have on you far outweighs the small amount of time it takes to shred anything with identifying information.
Get into the habit of putting anything with identifying information into a "shred box" and then shredding the information on a consistent basis.
Also, start paying attention to who is asking for your identifying information. Don't give out your social security number and birth date to everyone that asks for it. Just say "no". These days you can't get a quote for anything or any type of service without giving up this information....but that just opens you up to the possibility of identity theft. Keep a list of the places where you give out this information.
Protect yourself. Protect your identity.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
As organizers we tell our clients to "open the mail next to the garbage can and throw the junk mail immediately away" . This is usually to prevent it from being piled on a table creating a mess. BUT, we also need to be very careful about what we are throwing away. Anything that has identifying information, such as your name, address, social security number, birth date should be shredded.
Identity theft is rampant and can cause a lot of damage. Damage that can take years and thousands of dollars to undo. The aggravation and emotional toll that it can have on you far outweighs the small amount of time it takes to shred anything with identifying information.
Get into the habit of putting anything with identifying information into a "shred box" and then shredding the information on a consistent basis.
Also, start paying attention to who is asking for your identifying information. Don't give out your social security number and birth date to everyone that asks for it. Just say "no". These days you can't get a quote for anything or any type of service without giving up this information....but that just opens you up to the possibility of identity theft. Keep a list of the places where you give out this information.
Protect yourself. Protect your identity.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Monday, May 2, 2011
Organized and Clean - What's the Difference
A lot of people have this misconception that being organized and being clean is the same thing. It's not. You can have a clean house that is a cluttered mess. Or you can have an organized house that is filthy and dusty. One does not necessarily have to do with the other.
Organization is a state of mind. It's subjective. What's organized by some people's standards isn't necessarily organized by others.
But dirt...is dirt. It's sort of black and white. Mostly black. I'm sure that you have all seen the old fashioned white glove test. You can't argue with black dirt on a white glove.
Just because a space is organized doesn't mean it's clean. When you are sitting at a desk and you are wheezing because of all the dust bunnies on and under the desk...chances are it is not clean.
But when you get a manager that says "well, no one else has complained" ....obviously it must be clean and you are just too picky. Right? WRONG !
I'm sure that you have all seen the "Hoarders" shows. Those people live in their homes and they don't complain. So does that make it o.k. ? No, is the correct answer.
Just because everyone around you doesn't complain doesn't mean your office space is clean. It just means that they don't mind living and working in a dirty environment. That doesn't mean that you have to. And your manager should be ashamed of himself for subjecting you to a dirty working environment and for making you feel like you are the one that has the problem for speaking up.
It sort of reminds me of the story "The Emperor's Clothes". Everyone just went along with the program and no one wanted to rock the boat. Until a new person came to the palace and said "no, don't see the clothes....he isn't wearing any".
Taking a stand and saying that you want a clean and organized work environment is not easy. Especially when you are made to feel like there is something wrong with you for speaking up. But your health should come first. And people will eventually thank you for speaking up and creating a safer and cleaner work environment.
Remember....being Organized involves being Clean. They are not exclusive.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Organization is a state of mind. It's subjective. What's organized by some people's standards isn't necessarily organized by others.
But dirt...is dirt. It's sort of black and white. Mostly black. I'm sure that you have all seen the old fashioned white glove test. You can't argue with black dirt on a white glove.
Just because a space is organized doesn't mean it's clean. When you are sitting at a desk and you are wheezing because of all the dust bunnies on and under the desk...chances are it is not clean.
But when you get a manager that says "well, no one else has complained" ....obviously it must be clean and you are just too picky. Right? WRONG !
I'm sure that you have all seen the "Hoarders" shows. Those people live in their homes and they don't complain. So does that make it o.k. ? No, is the correct answer.
Just because everyone around you doesn't complain doesn't mean your office space is clean. It just means that they don't mind living and working in a dirty environment. That doesn't mean that you have to. And your manager should be ashamed of himself for subjecting you to a dirty working environment and for making you feel like you are the one that has the problem for speaking up.
It sort of reminds me of the story "The Emperor's Clothes". Everyone just went along with the program and no one wanted to rock the boat. Until a new person came to the palace and said "no, don't see the clothes....he isn't wearing any".
Taking a stand and saying that you want a clean and organized work environment is not easy. Especially when you are made to feel like there is something wrong with you for speaking up. But your health should come first. And people will eventually thank you for speaking up and creating a safer and cleaner work environment.
Remember....being Organized involves being Clean. They are not exclusive.
Organizational Consulting Services
www.organizationalconsultingservices.com
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
The Difference Between Chronic Disorganization and Hoarding
Hoarding is a hot topic. But a lot of people confuse clutter and disorganization with hoarding. I‘ve had some clients think they were hoarders when in reality they just had a cluttered and disorganized house.
So what is the difference?
According to the dictionary, clutter is a “confused or disorganized state or collection”.
A confused state? Yes, you can have clutter of the mind. But most people think of clutter as just “stuff”. A collection of random objects scattered all over the place. That’s a nice and simple definition. It could just be that you hadn’t bothered to pick up after yourself and have stuff everywhere.
Then we get to a more serious and a more cluttered situation and we could end up with chronic disorganization.
Chronic Disorganization also has a definition:
- Chronic disorganization is having a past history of disorganization in which self-help efforts to change have failed
- an undermining of current quality of life due to disorganization
- the expectation of future disorganization.
This means that you have been disorganized for many years. And it has started to affect your quality of life. You can’t find things. You are constantly late because you can’t find things. You are embarrassed by your mess. It’s a little more than just basic clutter.
A person can be organized in one area of his life but not in another. They can be organized at work but be disorganized at home. They can be organized by how they manage their time but not with how they manage their stuff.
Then we go up another level and get to “hoarding”.
What exactly is “hoarding”? According to “Frost & Hartl’s (’96) definition of clinical hoarding:
1) the acquisition of, and failure to discard, a large number of possessions that appear to be useless or of limited value
2) living spaces sufficiently cluttered so as to preclude activities for which those spaces were designated
3) significant distress of impairment in functioning caused by the hoarding
Some people have an obsessive need to acquire things. They tend to develop an emotional attachment to things that many of us would consider trash.
Family and friends of hoarders don’t always understand that “hoarding” is an “illness” and that the hoarder needs professional help. They sometimes feel that by just going in and cleaning out the house (sometimes even when the hoarder doesn’t know that they are going to do it) that everything will be “o.k.”. Once the mess is gone. Problem solved. But that can actually make it worse.
Hoarding is a complex issue. An issue that not even the mental health community can agree on. An issue that there might not be a cure for.
It’s a problem that many people won’t admit they have and one that might cost them their family or even their life.
A problem that is more common than you think.
Organizational Consulting Services
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